On being an angel...

"Woodman's pictures are not de-constructive, but constructive. She added layers of reflection and mimicry within the photograph to confound the transparent recording of the real. The images become psychological portraits of the identity of the body, rather than identifying physical portraits that reveal the psyche."

Hixon

Francesca Woodman has created only the small number of 500 photographs and she is considered to be one of the most influential photographers of our times. She was born in Denver in 1958 and studied at Rhode Island School of Design .Her first exhibition was in Britain and incorporated photos that she took when she was only 13 years old.

She developed an interest on the female body and on the three dimensional world and how people relate to space. She takes photos of herself and her body becomes a tool that enables her to explore the world. Her body is the self, the object and the subject. She is depicting her body becoming the wall, part of the floor or sealed behind a glass and blend with the objects that surround her. She explores human boundaries and specifically explores existence and disappearance, life and death. Her portraits were sensual, violent and certainly haunting. She is exploring passionately her gender and sexuality. In her photos she did not deconstruct reality rather incorporated different levels of reality. She is creating images were you can sense a dialog between herself and her body. She is using symbols and explores the transitory experience of space.

Her photographs are self portraits that definitely communicate her inner feelings through image dialogs. She is often nude in her portraits and alone. When she is not nude she is wearing vintage clothing something that she loved wearing. The setting of her photos is usually a large empty room, a cold dark place that has old furniture. She is a beautiful and gifted young woman that received brilliant critics concerning her work and started a prospering career at a young age.

However, at the age of 22 she threw herself out of the window from her flat in New York just after publishing her first book. She published only one work that was called “Some Disordered Interior Geometries”. Critics started discussing the suicidal signs that were depicted on her photos because her portraits had incorporated a psychological view of her existence. At the same time though, her photos were playful, experimental and sensual. What made Woodman an influential artist was not the way of her death rather than her life’s work. She became influential for her experimental and innovative perspective. She is an artist and a woman worth discovering.

Art:F.Woodman
for slideshow link

In the mind of Gondry

“When people are very original, sometimes they are original to resist the mainstream.”

Michael Gondry.

Michael Gondry is the director of the “Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind” (Η αιώνια λιακάδα ενός καθαρού μυαλού) and soon his new film “The science of sleep” will be released in the cinemas. Before that he created a great number of short films before he embarked in his first long film endeavor called “Human Behaviour.”

When I think about Gondry I think about a man that refuses to grow up in a world of pretenses and I see a man that not only hasn’t lost the child inside him but dares to expose it. As he said in an interview “childhood occupies the biggest part of your brain so a lot of my memories subconsciously and consciously enter the videos I do.”

He was born in France in 1963 and apart from a very talented film director he has directed music video clips that are innovative, imaginative, surreal and deeply thought provoking. He was always listening to music and performed as a drummer in a band. Describing the meaning of music in his life he mentioned in an interview that "we listened a lot to pop music, rhythm and blues, and my father was a big Duke Ellington fan. So I never got into music as some sort of reaction to my parents. I didn't have to use music to throw shit back at my parents. They gave me lots of freedom in thinking. I just listened to the music I had always liked.” He has collaborated with Bjork in many of her videos (Isobel, bachelorette, human behavior), Beck (cell phone’s dead), Massive Attack’s (protection), Radiohead (Knives out), White stripes, Chemical Brothers and much more. It’s worth seeing his videos as they remind me of short films where he is presenting through images imaginative stories.

His films are deconstructing reality and incorporate our memories, our dreams and the importance of storytelling is emphasized. His videos and films are thought provoking and have something to tell. He has also participated in various exhibitions where he introduced his ideas by using video installations. The world of Gondry is a world for all the adults that will always feel young and question the certainties of this life. Discover him and make your own deconstructions about this world and don’t forget to travel with your imagination as a vehicle.

Link: Gondry

(Image by Gondry in Bjorks video,photo by rachel owens)

The City of Sinners

Sin City is the city of sinners and it’s a black n' white comic that was created by Frank Miller. He was working for Marvel comics for years but in Dark Horse he created one of the darkest comics in the comic industry.

Sin City is one of my favourite comics of all time as I love its haunting crime stories, its dark artwork and brilliant story telling. Sin City is a corrupted city where you will find crime and punishment, corrupted cops, mysterious people and dark secrets. Sin City has no heroes as they do not live long enough to become heroes. The characters have weaknesses, battle with their inner soul and seek revenge. Frank Millers drawing and storyline is unique and is influenced by film noir and Japanese manga.

A central character in Sin City is Marv Statue, an outlaw that kills in order to find out who killed the hooker Goldie. Goldie is his undying love. Frank Miller said that Marv was his study of the abyss of the human heart. Marv said:
"When I find out who did it, it won't be quick or quiet like it was with you," he promises dead Goldie. "No, it'll be loud and nasty, my kind of kill. I'll stare the bastard in the face and laugh as he screams to God and I'll laugh harder when he whimpers like a baby. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like Heaven after what I've done to him.
I love you, Goldie."
Sin City was recently adapted for the big screen and was directed by Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Miller himself. Therefore the fans of the comic were excited to watch that the film was identical to the comic series and for me it is the best comic adaptation in the film industry so far. I have heard that a second part will be directed with more of Frank Miller stories so watch out.

Apart from Sin City, Miller has created Wolverine one of my favourite comic characters (X-Men), Elektra and Daredevil.
However, Sin City is a pulp-fiction classic and its so worth reading!